Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov criticized French authorities after his arrest on charges he failed to take adequate measures that moderate the content published through the messaging app. Durov, arrested on August 25 in an airport near Paris, responded for the first time publicly, calling the allegations “misguided.”
Durov was accused of suspected complicity in allowing illegal activities on Telegram, such as illicit transactions, drug trafficking, fraud, and spreading child sexual abuse material.
In his first public statement since he was detained which was published on Telegram, Durov denied the charges, saying that holding him personally responsible for these crimes is not justified. He firmly stated, “The claims that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue.”
Durov himself has Russian and French citizenship, and as such, he was of the opinion that if some country is displeased with any internet service, the authorities should legally challenge the very service, not its bosses. He criticized the use of century-old laws to try a CEO for what third parties do on a platform he runs:
“Building technology is hard enough as it is,” Durov added. “No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for possible abuses of those tools.”
Long criticized for its content moderation policies, Telegram hosts groups of up to 200,000 members echo chambers, critics say, which can foster the spread of misinformation and harmful content.Recently, Telegram came under criticism in the UK for hosting far-right channels that played a role in organizing incidents of violence in English cities last month.
While the platform did take down several groups, experts argue that its system to moderate extremist and illegal content is looser compared to other major social media and messaging platforms. Durov acknowledged that Telegram is far from perfect; it faces challenges, especially in view of the fast growth of the user base, which he said reached 950 million.
He did, however, acknowledge that the explosive growth of the platform means some “growing pains” have set in, making the process of manipulating the app easier for such criminals. But he committed to making “significant improvements” in the way Telegram moderates henceforth.
He added that the French government had every way of reaching him and the company, Telegram, an official representative having been appointed in the European Union. He also underlined the efforts of the company in fighting harmful content: “We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day.”
The controversy comes amid reports that Telegram has refused to participate in international initiatives aimed at finding and pulling child abuse material online. Durov, 39, co-founded Telegram in 2013. The platform was banned in Russia in 2018 after Durov refused to hand over user data, but the ban was lifted in 2021.
